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The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:52 am

The Boy Behind the Bump and GrindBy Maxine BlockMotion Picture, February 1957

Lots of text in this one. After all, it is a book-length bonus! Many parts of this text is very familiar. I have a feeling I have read parts of this many times before somewhere else. And I remember reading this right after becoming a fan a million years ago. But where?

(Or has this magazine been posted here before? I could not find it with the search function.)

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Re: The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:54 am

Continued...

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Re: The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:55 am

And the last page...

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Re: The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Wed Dec 05, 2012 1:19 am

Haven´t read the story yet but I want to thank you for all the fantastic magazine articles that you post.They are always fun to read and sometimes they bring forth a new photo or two as well as never before read facts and stories.Thanks so much.

Re: The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Lots of text in this one. After all, it is a book-length bonus! Many parts of this text is very familiar. I have a feeling I have read parts of this many times before somewhere else. And I remember reading this right after becoming a fan a million years ago. But where?

(Or has this magazine been posted here before? I could not find it with the search function.)

I've not seen this one before, but there are several interesting and previously-unseen images, plus a few that are a little larger or better than I've seen before. I'll upload them next.

But ... oh my ... I read Maxine Block's article, and she writes as if she were Albert Goldman's mother. Elvis is a coarse,lucky, untrained hillbilly singer with an uncontrolled sex drive, although he still seems about as mature as a 16-year old, and his parents are stump-dumb country folk who would probably be happier if they were still living in a Tupelo shack.

If Elvis read this article, it had to have pissed him off.

Examples:

The Lansky Brothers have tried to help him select clothes in colors that blend well; they have even tried to get him to look at their Ivy League styles, but Elvis remains uninterested.

Elvis has no taste -- but then, where, in the small town of Tupelo, Mississippi, where he was born, or in the factory section of Memphis, where he grew up, could he have learned to distinguish the good from the shoddy?

The Presleys live in a ranch house which is obviously cheaper than the others on the block.

Although Vernon and Gladys Presley would be the last people to admit it, they might well be more content if they still lived in Lauderdale Courts -- a low-income public housing part of Memphis, close to the factories. There, Mr. Presley drove a truck; Mrs. Presley manned a coffee urn at Britlings, a downtown cafeteria, and Elvis did odd jobs after school. Before that, the Presleys, who admit candidly that they "can read and write, but that's about all," spent the first 15 years of their married life in a two-room shack, with outdoor plumbing, in the town of Tupelo, Mississippi.

Wherever he goes, his eyes begin to rove, like a boy home from military school. "The only thing that saves Elvis from becoming innocently involved in messy headlines," according to a friend, "is that the boy is so busy working he just hasn't got the time."

That said, there are some reasonable moments as well, like this:

"Elvis is our whole world; he's all we live for," his father adds. "When he goes away, we can hardly bear it, the house is so dead."

"Elvis wanted a brother or sister real bad when he was little," Mrs. Presley recalls. "He was kind of a lonely child and we were just as anxious to have more children. I'm one of eight children myself. And poor as we were, we spent money for doctors -- lots of different ones -- to try and remedy it, but nothing helped and Elvis is all we have."

Anyway, here are some of the photos that stood out:

410000_Elvis 1st Grade.jpg

6 Years

460000_Elvis 6th Grade.JPG

11 YearsImage was reversed, now corrected.

480000_Elvis 8th Grade.jpg

13 Years

510000_Elvis 11th Grade.jpg

16 YearsThis one may be from his sophomore year in high school, thus 10th grade.

As always, thanks, The fool.

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Re: The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:07 am

And here are some others new to my eyes:

560700_Gladys and Vernon Presley.JPG

560800_Elvis Cadillac w fan graffiti.jpg

560800_on 20th Century-Fox set.JPG

Image was reversed, now corrected.

561031_w Dewey Phillips.JPG

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Re: The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:12 am

drjohncarpenter wrote:But ... oh my ... I read Maxine Block's article, and she writes as if she were Albert Goldman's mother.

Ha, that was funny. I also thought the article was a bit unkind.

Re: The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:14 am

The fool wrote:

drjohncarpenter wrote:But ... oh my ... I read Maxine Block's article, and she writes as if she were Albert Goldman's mother.

Ha, that was funny. I also thought the article was a bit unkind.

Indeed.

The quotes I transcribe above show an agenda to defame Elvis, his parents and his culture.

Re: The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Wed Dec 05, 2012 4:51 am

The one of his folks is really nice. A shame people who were so ignorant as this author actually got to meet the Presley's instead of someone legit.

Re: The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Thu Dec 06, 2012 2:22 am

Mike Eder wrote:The one of his folks is really nice. A shame people who were so ignorant as this author actually got to meet the Presley's instead of someone legit.

Maxine Block isn't ignorant, the article makes clear she is a very coherent journalist.

But as my examples prove, Block writes with the same kind of dismissive, prejudiced perspective regarding Elvis Presley's music -- and the southern culture he grew up in -- that fans would regretfully discover as the overwhelming viewpoint of Albert Goldman's hateful 1981 biography.

Re: The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Thu Dec 06, 2012 2:40 am

Thanks for the post, the fool.

drjohncarpenter wrote:

Mike Eder wrote:The one of his folks is really nice. A shame people who were so ignorant as this author actually got to meet the Presley's instead of someone legit.

Maxine Block isn't ignorant, the article makes clear she is a very coherent journalist.

But as my examples prove, Block writes with the same kind of dismissive, prejudiced perspective regarding Elvis Presley's music -- and the southern culture he grew up in -- that fans would regretfully discover as the overwhelming viewpoint of Albert Goldman's hateful 1981 biography.

Is that what you call bigotry?

Re: The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Thu Dec 06, 2012 3:25 am

Jove wrote:Thanks for the post, the fool.

drjohncarpenter wrote:

Mike Eder wrote:The one of his folks is really nice. A shame people who were so ignorant as this author actually got to meet the Presley's instead of someone legit.

Maxine Block isn't ignorant, the article makes clear she is a very coherent journalist.

But as my examples prove, Block writes with the same kind of dismissive, prejudiced perspective regarding Elvis Presley's music -- and the southern culture he grew up in -- that fans would regretfully discover as the overwhelming viewpoint of Albert Goldman's hateful 1981 biography.

Is that what you call bigotry?

Of a sort, yes. Goldman's work is driven by lies and hatred, that's undeniable.

Re: The Boy Behind the Bump and Grind (1957 article)

Thu Dec 06, 2012 11:53 am

Yes, the article is very valuable, yet the condescension is almost unbearable. Did this person realize what a bigot she was? That's unclear - whether it was sheer malice, or she'd never been south before. But "ignorance" is just no excuse for this kind of bigotry. She twists his accent into "Jethro Bodine-speak." Perhaps this is what she "hears." Where did she get "Glades" from? I guess she never heard a southern accent before - who knows?

Even hearing that he "mowed lawns" elicits a remark that one might call racist: that generally "Negroes" mowed lawns, but Elvis did, too. Must be that he is (and she didn't SAY it, but she referenced it throughout), "white trash." That was her point. It's sad, because she got very good information here.

As you say Doc, to have this opportunity, and do this with it? Well, that was his life. And I'm sure it DID p*** him off! He once went off on someone about the term "Holy Roller" which she uses.

Great material, presented in the most offensive, creepy way by this woman. You can see what he had to contend with in life.